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98 Wounds
"A gay, punk-rock Chinese American in the age of AIDS, Chin confronts all manner of hypocrisy."— San Francisco Chronicle 98 Wounds is a series of improbably linked stories that reimagines and reconciles the abject, the outlaw, the ostracized, the misfits, and the cranky contrarians among us. Gay people have never been as free—or divided—as in today's society. As the gay majority surges into the mainstream, a social construct has emerged depicting "Good Gays" and "Bad Gays." Endless mythmaking goes into dehumanizing the Bad. Barebackers, poz sexpigs, meth-users, sexual libertines, and fetishists have been blamed, shamed, and disdained. Any vicious untruth or loathsome rumor about them—even those contrary to science or common sense—is accepted without question. The characters populating 98 Wounds run roughshod in a city spiraling towards collapse. They broker urgent desires in constant pursuit of identity, obsession, rituals of hope, even the simplicity of an ordinary life. They unwaveringly root for their own understanding of belonging, contentment, pleasure, and love. In 98 Wounds , either we are all damned, or we are all a sentiment that speaks to all cultures in these uncertain times. Award-winning writer Justin Chin is the author of six books, including Bite Hard (Manic D Press) and Mongrel (St. Martin's Press). His works have been widely anthologized. Born in Malaysia, raised and educated in Singapore, shipped to the United States by way of Hawaii, he currently lives in San Francisco, California.
124 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 11, 2011
4 people are currently reading
210 people want to read
About the author
Justin Chin
11 books45 followersBorn in Malaysia, raised & educated in Singapore, shipped to the U.S. by way of Hawaii, and lived in San Francisco. Author of 3 books of poetry, all published by Manic D Press: Bite Hard (1997); Harmless Medicine (2001), a finalist in the Bay Area Book Reviewers Association Awards; and, Gutted (2006), which received the 2007 Thom Gunn Award for Poetry by the Publishing Triangle. Squeezed in between these were 2 non-fictions: Mongrel: Essays, Diatribes & Pranks (St. Martins, 1999), and the ur-memoir, Burden of Ashes (Alyson Publications, 2002).
In the nineties, also led a double life as performance artist: created and presented seven full-length solo works here, there and where ever. Packed up those cookies in 2002, (with occasional relapses) and the documents, scripts, and what-heck from that period was published in Attack of the Man-Eating Lotus Blossoms (Suspect Thoughts Press, 2005). Continues to produce text/visual Book-based performance work. Book 2 is an on-going project where discarded or abandoned books found on the streets & other public places are remade, remodeled, & reworked into artists books.
In the nineties, also led a double life as performance artist: created and presented seven full-length solo works here, there and where ever. Packed up those cookies in 2002, (with occasional relapses) and the documents, scripts, and what-heck from that period was published in Attack of the Man-Eating Lotus Blossoms (Suspect Thoughts Press, 2005). Continues to produce text/visual Book-based performance work. Book 2 is an on-going project where discarded or abandoned books found on the streets & other public places are remade, remodeled, & reworked into artists books.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 3, 2025
StoryGraph challenge brought me to this book. The fuck did i just read.
Y'all, this was nasty and a few beautiful lines here and there will not make me like this book.
Y'all, this was nasty and a few beautiful lines here and there will not make me like this book.
March 26, 2012
Justin Chin's wordsmithery makes my knees buckle. These poetic short stories are beautiful, raw, aching and hilarious. Not for the faint of heart nor queasy of stomach.
May 6, 2023
I read this book back in 2016 but had no real recollection of it so to post a review I read it again and before anything else I would like to quote the publisher's description from the back of my copy:
"'98 Wounds' is a series of improbably linked stories that reimagines and reconciles the misfits, the outlaws and the cranky contrarians among us. Brokering urgent desires in constant pursuit of identity, obsession, rituals of hope, even the simplicity of an ordinary life, they unwaveringly root for their own understanding of happiness, pleasure and love." From the 2011 paperback edition from Manic D Press in San Francisco.
That is a better description then the one on Goodreads but I would describe this as the story of someone who came of age right at the end of the 1980s beginning of the 1990s in the era of AIDS and survived and then went through the age of the Meth-amphetamine explosion and survived that and finds himself at the other end in a new world and is struggling to understand what it means or even if he can relate to it or even if he likes it. He says of his experiences:
"To exist in a time that is not the tragic heroic AIDs 80s, where the density of your grief and sorrow can wipe your slate clean, that what you experienced, what you saw, lived through - no matter how many degrees separated, no one will ever question you now - was enough to give you a free pass, a laminated card marked Redemption. (But) this was not the future...the new golden rainbow era of rights, relationships...This was an exhausted netherland where no one quite knew whether to go forward or backwards or stay put, to lay down and die or to lay down a stake, to remember or forget, to recreate awash in nostalgia or to create anew, the past packaged in matching luggage sets and stashed in storage, to create anew without the annoying tentacles of the past as if that were ever possible..."
Mr. Chin, like many of us born into legality but not acceptance is discovering that 'gay history' and 'gay identity' are concepts about as stable as fashion. By the time you are at the end of your thirties and into the forties a whole new generation of young gays have come on the scene with new experiences, demands and references and what you experienced or went through is no more important to them then the views of the old foggies of our youth, except none of us ever expected to be the new old timers, the irrelevant. Even this definition of constantly changing regenerating gay youth and experience may no longer be true. As Chin says at one point:
"We imagined apocalypses because it was easier than the complicated futures that lay ahead. A future fraught with baffling new technologies, impenetrable financial power structures...collapsing social systems...Death was more imaginable than...the decisions and burdens of adulthood and survival..."
Amongst other things Mr. Chin comprehensively demolishes, unknowingly, with those words are almost all the appalling 'gay' si-fi and speculative fiction produced in the past half century. In many ways Mr. Chin's novel reads more interestingly now then it did when first published.
I am giving it four stars for the fine bits, including as very funny story 'First' about the first man, Adam, naming everything. But there is a lot at the beginning of this collection that dragged and I found, if not heavy, then at least dull reading. When I was in the midst of it I expected to give this book a scathing review and rating but it developed on me and is short enough that the longueurs are acceptable for the really strong parts because they are very good.
This will probably always been a niche read, but it has interesting things to say for those of whose experience of being gay is longer then a micro second and for all whose interests are not confined to the immediate.
"'98 Wounds' is a series of improbably linked stories that reimagines and reconciles the misfits, the outlaws and the cranky contrarians among us. Brokering urgent desires in constant pursuit of identity, obsession, rituals of hope, even the simplicity of an ordinary life, they unwaveringly root for their own understanding of happiness, pleasure and love." From the 2011 paperback edition from Manic D Press in San Francisco.
That is a better description then the one on Goodreads but I would describe this as the story of someone who came of age right at the end of the 1980s beginning of the 1990s in the era of AIDS and survived and then went through the age of the Meth-amphetamine explosion and survived that and finds himself at the other end in a new world and is struggling to understand what it means or even if he can relate to it or even if he likes it. He says of his experiences:
"To exist in a time that is not the tragic heroic AIDs 80s, where the density of your grief and sorrow can wipe your slate clean, that what you experienced, what you saw, lived through - no matter how many degrees separated, no one will ever question you now - was enough to give you a free pass, a laminated card marked Redemption. (But) this was not the future...the new golden rainbow era of rights, relationships...This was an exhausted netherland where no one quite knew whether to go forward or backwards or stay put, to lay down and die or to lay down a stake, to remember or forget, to recreate awash in nostalgia or to create anew, the past packaged in matching luggage sets and stashed in storage, to create anew without the annoying tentacles of the past as if that were ever possible..."
Mr. Chin, like many of us born into legality but not acceptance is discovering that 'gay history' and 'gay identity' are concepts about as stable as fashion. By the time you are at the end of your thirties and into the forties a whole new generation of young gays have come on the scene with new experiences, demands and references and what you experienced or went through is no more important to them then the views of the old foggies of our youth, except none of us ever expected to be the new old timers, the irrelevant. Even this definition of constantly changing regenerating gay youth and experience may no longer be true. As Chin says at one point:
"We imagined apocalypses because it was easier than the complicated futures that lay ahead. A future fraught with baffling new technologies, impenetrable financial power structures...collapsing social systems...Death was more imaginable than...the decisions and burdens of adulthood and survival..."
Amongst other things Mr. Chin comprehensively demolishes, unknowingly, with those words are almost all the appalling 'gay' si-fi and speculative fiction produced in the past half century. In many ways Mr. Chin's novel reads more interestingly now then it did when first published.
I am giving it four stars for the fine bits, including as very funny story 'First' about the first man, Adam, naming everything. But there is a lot at the beginning of this collection that dragged and I found, if not heavy, then at least dull reading. When I was in the midst of it I expected to give this book a scathing review and rating but it developed on me and is short enough that the longueurs are acceptable for the really strong parts because they are very good.
This will probably always been a niche read, but it has interesting things to say for those of whose experience of being gay is longer then a micro second and for all whose interests are not confined to the immediate.
November 2, 2024
“IMPROBABLY LINKED STORIES”
The blurb on the back cover of 98 Wounds describes the book as “a series of improbably linked stories.” By “stories,” I assumed short stories, or short fiction, is meant; but after reading 98 Wounds, I don’t think so. With Justin Chin’s writings, genre labels are fluid.
Chin’s poetry is mostly unmistakably poetry, but, aside from this, it can be hard to tell if a piece by Chin is a work of nonfiction, such as an essay or a memoir, or a work of fiction, such as a short story. Arguably, the only “conventional” pieces of short fiction in 98 Wounds seem to be “Quietus” and “Burn.”
I guess what I’m trying to say is that 98 Wounds is not a collection of short stories in the conventional sense. After all, the back cover blurb says “stories,” not “short stories” or “short fiction.” Justin Chin’s “stories,” however you classify them, are exciting adventures in reading, to say the least.
The phrase “98 Wounds” does not appear in any of the pieces included in 98 Wounds. Where did Justin Chin obtain his title? I’ve poked around quite a lot on the Web but have found nothing conclusive. The phrase appears in letter dated 1875 from Arthur Rimbaud to Ernest Delahaye. It also appears in a song by Patti Smith titled “Privilege (Set Me Free).” Smith may have gotten the phrase from Rimbaud. She wrote an introduction to an edition of Rimbaud’s A Season in Hell & The Drunken Boat (New Directions, 2011). I haven’t been able to find anything about Justin Chin being influenced by Arthur Rimbaud, although it seems possible. Also, as familiar as he was with popular culture, it’s possible that Chin could have obtained the phrase from Patti Smith. So, I ask, Did Justin Chin get the phrase “98 Wounds,” from Arthur Rimbaud, or from Patti Smith, or from some other entirely different source?
Justin Chin places the following epigraph at the beginning of 98 Wounds: “Apologies, repentance, failure, and defeat are always so much better when in the form of a story.” The order in which his stories appear in 98 Wounds is perfect. Each story wonderfully leads into the next one.
Chin begins his collection of eleven stories with a brief, masterfully written piece titled “Outsider” in which the narrator is hiking in the great outdoors: “All this outsiderness is just so tedious and so exhausting, he thought.” From his mentions of “pharmaceutical drugs,” “health insurance companies,” and “your indifferent and egomaniacal physicians who . . . will not be questioned and told otherwise by some diseased slut,” I assume that the narrator is ill, probably from HIV/AIDS.
“Quietus,” the second story, is also short. After I read this piece, I looked up the definition of “Quietus” and found that the word is a euphemism for death, which is appropriate, since the story is about death. The first line of the story is, “’How would you like to die?’ he asks.” The story starts out rather humorous, then segues into a serious depiction of the narrator’s friend dying in hospice. His integration of cats into the story is priceless. “’What’s the collective noun for cats?’ he asks.” The narrator concludes the story: “A whole lot of cats is a clowder, a clutter, a cluster, a glorying, a pounce, a kindle, a litter, a dout, a parliament, a seraglio, a glaring, [and then Chin lowers the boom] a destruction.” “Quietus” is one of my favorite stories in 98 Wounds. The way Chin uses words is unforgettable.
The third story, “Burn,” at eleven and a half pages, is a more conventionally written short story with characters and dialogue. The narrator describes his relationship with his lover: “Our love is bound by chemicals” The narrator’s mother is dying from cancer. Chin is kind to his characters in this story.
The next two stories, “Goo” and “Sugar,” are extremely sexual, even scatological, and were also published in multi-author collections of erotica.
“Woo” and “Marriages,” the sixth and seventh stories in the collection, are about what the titles indicate. They teem with Justin Chin’s acerbic observations on pitching woo and the institution of marriage.
“First,” the eighth story, is an ingenious and funny story about Adam, “the first man on the planet.” Adam has “the gargantuan task of naming all other living creatures.” The narrator, or Chin, observes, “The only clues we may have in understanding his [Adam’s] experiences are those of amnesia victims and Donald Duck.” A midget trails Adam with a notepad and a laptop. Pop culture references abound. “First” is Justin Chin at his best.
In the ninth story, “King,” Chin gives us his unique take on dating and relationships. “Queen,” the tenth story, is a four-page run-on paragraph about fellatio. Only Justin Chin could successfully write something like this.
In a videorecording of the book launch for 98 Wounds, Justin Chin reads “Quietus” and excerpts from “Bolster,” the eleventh story in 98 Wounds. In the video, Chin says that “Bolster” is an homage to The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon. At thirty-two pages, “Bolster” is the longest story in 98 Wounds and is appropriately placed as the last piece in the collection. Chin goes all over the place in “Bolster.” Chin prefaces the various sections of “Bolster” with headings in capital letters, such as, “THINGS THAT SOUND DELIGHTFULLY OBSCENE BUT AREN’T AT ALL” and “AIDS DRUGS THAT SOUND LIKE HIPSTER BABY NAMES.” Much of “Bolster” is about AIDS. The piece seems to be a summing up for Justin Chin, a preparation for death. Chin’s words. Oh, his words! And, so many quotable lines! “We tell ourselves lies because we are the only ones who can fool ourselves.” “I would most certainly like to bend without fear of breaking, break without fear of judgment.”
The last line of the last piece in 98 Wounds, the last book of Justin Chin, is so Justin Chin: “And you cannot, must not, believe anything—not a single word—that I say.”
I found reading—and rereading—Justin Chin to be an immersive and indelible experience.
The blurb on the back cover of 98 Wounds describes the book as “a series of improbably linked stories.” By “stories,” I assumed short stories, or short fiction, is meant; but after reading 98 Wounds, I don’t think so. With Justin Chin’s writings, genre labels are fluid.
Chin’s poetry is mostly unmistakably poetry, but, aside from this, it can be hard to tell if a piece by Chin is a work of nonfiction, such as an essay or a memoir, or a work of fiction, such as a short story. Arguably, the only “conventional” pieces of short fiction in 98 Wounds seem to be “Quietus” and “Burn.”
I guess what I’m trying to say is that 98 Wounds is not a collection of short stories in the conventional sense. After all, the back cover blurb says “stories,” not “short stories” or “short fiction.” Justin Chin’s “stories,” however you classify them, are exciting adventures in reading, to say the least.
The phrase “98 Wounds” does not appear in any of the pieces included in 98 Wounds. Where did Justin Chin obtain his title? I’ve poked around quite a lot on the Web but have found nothing conclusive. The phrase appears in letter dated 1875 from Arthur Rimbaud to Ernest Delahaye. It also appears in a song by Patti Smith titled “Privilege (Set Me Free).” Smith may have gotten the phrase from Rimbaud. She wrote an introduction to an edition of Rimbaud’s A Season in Hell & The Drunken Boat (New Directions, 2011). I haven’t been able to find anything about Justin Chin being influenced by Arthur Rimbaud, although it seems possible. Also, as familiar as he was with popular culture, it’s possible that Chin could have obtained the phrase from Patti Smith. So, I ask, Did Justin Chin get the phrase “98 Wounds,” from Arthur Rimbaud, or from Patti Smith, or from some other entirely different source?
Justin Chin places the following epigraph at the beginning of 98 Wounds: “Apologies, repentance, failure, and defeat are always so much better when in the form of a story.” The order in which his stories appear in 98 Wounds is perfect. Each story wonderfully leads into the next one.
Chin begins his collection of eleven stories with a brief, masterfully written piece titled “Outsider” in which the narrator is hiking in the great outdoors: “All this outsiderness is just so tedious and so exhausting, he thought.” From his mentions of “pharmaceutical drugs,” “health insurance companies,” and “your indifferent and egomaniacal physicians who . . . will not be questioned and told otherwise by some diseased slut,” I assume that the narrator is ill, probably from HIV/AIDS.
“Quietus,” the second story, is also short. After I read this piece, I looked up the definition of “Quietus” and found that the word is a euphemism for death, which is appropriate, since the story is about death. The first line of the story is, “’How would you like to die?’ he asks.” The story starts out rather humorous, then segues into a serious depiction of the narrator’s friend dying in hospice. His integration of cats into the story is priceless. “’What’s the collective noun for cats?’ he asks.” The narrator concludes the story: “A whole lot of cats is a clowder, a clutter, a cluster, a glorying, a pounce, a kindle, a litter, a dout, a parliament, a seraglio, a glaring, [and then Chin lowers the boom] a destruction.” “Quietus” is one of my favorite stories in 98 Wounds. The way Chin uses words is unforgettable.
The third story, “Burn,” at eleven and a half pages, is a more conventionally written short story with characters and dialogue. The narrator describes his relationship with his lover: “Our love is bound by chemicals” The narrator’s mother is dying from cancer. Chin is kind to his characters in this story.
The next two stories, “Goo” and “Sugar,” are extremely sexual, even scatological, and were also published in multi-author collections of erotica.
“Woo” and “Marriages,” the sixth and seventh stories in the collection, are about what the titles indicate. They teem with Justin Chin’s acerbic observations on pitching woo and the institution of marriage.
“First,” the eighth story, is an ingenious and funny story about Adam, “the first man on the planet.” Adam has “the gargantuan task of naming all other living creatures.” The narrator, or Chin, observes, “The only clues we may have in understanding his [Adam’s] experiences are those of amnesia victims and Donald Duck.” A midget trails Adam with a notepad and a laptop. Pop culture references abound. “First” is Justin Chin at his best.
In the ninth story, “King,” Chin gives us his unique take on dating and relationships. “Queen,” the tenth story, is a four-page run-on paragraph about fellatio. Only Justin Chin could successfully write something like this.
In a videorecording of the book launch for 98 Wounds, Justin Chin reads “Quietus” and excerpts from “Bolster,” the eleventh story in 98 Wounds. In the video, Chin says that “Bolster” is an homage to The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon. At thirty-two pages, “Bolster” is the longest story in 98 Wounds and is appropriately placed as the last piece in the collection. Chin goes all over the place in “Bolster.” Chin prefaces the various sections of “Bolster” with headings in capital letters, such as, “THINGS THAT SOUND DELIGHTFULLY OBSCENE BUT AREN’T AT ALL” and “AIDS DRUGS THAT SOUND LIKE HIPSTER BABY NAMES.” Much of “Bolster” is about AIDS. The piece seems to be a summing up for Justin Chin, a preparation for death. Chin’s words. Oh, his words! And, so many quotable lines! “We tell ourselves lies because we are the only ones who can fool ourselves.” “I would most certainly like to bend without fear of breaking, break without fear of judgment.”
The last line of the last piece in 98 Wounds, the last book of Justin Chin, is so Justin Chin: “And you cannot, must not, believe anything—not a single word—that I say.”
I found reading—and rereading—Justin Chin to be an immersive and indelible experience.
February 21, 2018
Fantastic, especially the last story 'Bolster.' Why is Chin not more well-known??? Where are all my queer asians shouting his name from the rooftops???
October 15, 2016
"Apologies, repentance, failure, and defeat are always so much better when in the form of a story." This, before he begins with the stories that are beautiful, some difficult to get through, if you are queasy, and dark, and controversial, and poetic, and punctuated here and there with humor. This was a re-read. It's just as beautiful the second time around, just as powerful, just as, well, unnerving. Heard him described as a "complex writer." Actually, the complexity is in the subject matter, the complexities of being a human being. A brilliant writer. Justin Chin died last year (2015), of a massive stroke, at age 46. It made re-reading 98 Wounds ever more poignant.
Why do we tell stories? According to Joan Didion, "We tell ourselves stories to live," a much quoted line, Chin points out, "Much less frequently quoted, however, are the final words of that essay, which read, '...and writing has not helped me see it clearly.'" And then he says, "But it did, of course." Why write stories? "We lie to ourselves and to others because lies make for some of the most entertaining and endearing and fantastic stories...We tell ourselves lies because we can. And because people believe us. A lie requires that belief, that paying of trust...We tell ourselves lies because we are the only ones who can fool ourselves." He writes, "...I am a liar, a sinner, a barebacker, a drug user, a degenerate, a slut, a home wrecker, a bugger, a scoundrel, a hopeless delinquent, a sick fuck, a vile idiot, an abomination, a shit-eating punk, a psycho nutjob, a sociopath, a useless piece of trash, a bastard son-of-a-bitch good-for-nothing lowlife scumbag." And then he ends with, "And you cannot, must not, believe anything -- not a single word -- that I say." This is queer lit genre, so if you don't like that genre don't read this. If you love fantastic literature, then do read this. I love it because it's fucking beautiful writing, regardless of whatever genre this is classified under.
Why do we tell stories? According to Joan Didion, "We tell ourselves stories to live," a much quoted line, Chin points out, "Much less frequently quoted, however, are the final words of that essay, which read, '...and writing has not helped me see it clearly.'" And then he says, "But it did, of course." Why write stories? "We lie to ourselves and to others because lies make for some of the most entertaining and endearing and fantastic stories...We tell ourselves lies because we can. And because people believe us. A lie requires that belief, that paying of trust...We tell ourselves lies because we are the only ones who can fool ourselves." He writes, "...I am a liar, a sinner, a barebacker, a drug user, a degenerate, a slut, a home wrecker, a bugger, a scoundrel, a hopeless delinquent, a sick fuck, a vile idiot, an abomination, a shit-eating punk, a psycho nutjob, a sociopath, a useless piece of trash, a bastard son-of-a-bitch good-for-nothing lowlife scumbag." And then he ends with, "And you cannot, must not, believe anything -- not a single word -- that I say." This is queer lit genre, so if you don't like that genre don't read this. If you love fantastic literature, then do read this. I love it because it's fucking beautiful writing, regardless of whatever genre this is classified under.
April 11, 2017
First, this book is NASTY. Graphic, salacious, and "shocking" in a way that bores me. Seriously, I don't think I know a single person that I could recommend this to without heavy warnings about the content. Uncomfortable can be a valuable feeling, but this has more in common with a little kid's fascination with poo than anything else.
That said, Chin's writing style is very appealing to me. And maybe I don't think he's as profound as he would like to be, but he makes some good points.
About halfway through, though, a weird thing happens. Chin stops trying to scandalize and starts tossing proverbs all around. Which wouldn't be bad, except it often seems unfocused and unfortunately loses the nervy energy that kept me going through the "dirty" bits.
Still, I liked it. Kinda/sorta. I've already ordered a book of his poetry. I'm thinking maybe that form will suit his strengths better than this book did, and I do like his voice.
That said, Chin's writing style is very appealing to me. And maybe I don't think he's as profound as he would like to be, but he makes some good points.
About halfway through, though, a weird thing happens. Chin stops trying to scandalize and starts tossing proverbs all around. Which wouldn't be bad, except it often seems unfocused and unfortunately loses the nervy energy that kept me going through the "dirty" bits.
Still, I liked it. Kinda/sorta. I've already ordered a book of his poetry. I'm thinking maybe that form will suit his strengths better than this book did, and I do like his voice.
July 20, 2014
Some of this was brilliant, most was damned good. Then there was some OK stuff, overall it evened out to a solid four stars. P.S. There was some scat stuff in here that made me turn a bit green. As much as the completist in me wanted to power through it, I had to skip over them. You've been warned.
July 24, 2012
Parts were brilliant...but uneven, over all.
December 29, 2016
Beautiful writing, dildos, drug use, sickness, anal sex... there is a lot going on.
July 5, 2012
Exceptionally talented writer describing lurid sexual conduct in a captivating style.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews